Another great custom tour finished
During a custom tour we spent a few days both in the Zemplén Hills and the Hortobágy. We had great birding, depite the first two days were rather rainy. Later we had good weather with lots of sunshine.
In the hills we had eight species of woodpeckers, Ural and Eagle Owl (altogether we had 6 species of owls) and also Eastern Imperial Eagle.
In the lowlands we had multiple encounters with flocks of Great Bustrads, several Red-breasted Geese and fantastic views of Lesser White-fronted Geese just to name a few. To our biggest surpriese we also saw an immature Greater Flamingo – a rarity in a Hungary.
Female White-backed Woodpecker (Simay Gábor)
Red-breasted Goose (Simay Gábor)
Sakertour team
Successful Autumn tours
Our autumn tours has started in mid-September and a few are still ahead. As a copule of the tours have already ended we can say we have once again a fantastic season with lot of great birding.
The weather has been rather changeble with some rainy periods, but when it was sunny, usually the temperature was above the avarege. The Crane migration is superb and reached a new, all time record with more then 130.000 counted at the same time in the Hortobágy. The biggest roost site held more then 60.000 birds!
A few records below to summerize the birding tours:
– fantastic Common Crane roosts with tens of thousands of birds seen flying into their night roost;
– several great views of Lesser White-fronted Geese;
– the first Red-bereasted Geese have already arrived, and as early as the 14th October our group saw a nice juvenile;
– all our tours have seen many Great Bustards and had great views of them;
– eight species of woodpeckers – including White-backed – were seen well;
– we had great views of Ural and Eagle Owls;
– supporting cast included Eastern Imperial Eagle, Long-legged Buzzard, Pallid Harrier, Red-footed Falcons (only till early October), several dozen Dotterels, Broad-billed Sandpipers and Little Crakes (the latter two only in September), great views of Great Bitterns, Long-eared and Sort-eared Owls roosting side-by-side etc;
– several groups had great views of Sociable Plover (just like in 2013)!
Common Cranes in their at their night roost (photo: Szilágyi Attila)
Tens of thousands of Cranes gathered at certain sites (Photo: Szilágyi Attila)
Dancing Common Crane (Photo: Szilágyi Attila)
Juvenile Sociable Plover in the Hortobágy (Photo: Szilágyi Attila)
Immature Eastern Imperial Eagle (Photo: Simay Gábor)
Great Bittern in flight (Photo: Simay Gábor)
Sakertour Team